What does your building say about you?

Friday, February 23, 2018
By Matt Sutter, Chief Executive Officer
In Design, Planning

What does your building say about you to top talent that you would like to hire?

Think about two different types of work environments:

1. Old school, crowded, dark, stuck in the past.

2. Bright, open, light filled, high tech, energizing, forward thinking.

What type of environment does your business need to attract the best and the brightest? To which environment will the young, the talented, the up-and-coming, be attracted?

In the professional world, Northeast Ohio businesses are competing with Seattle, San Francisco, Atlanta, Houston and other large cities. I know this first hand. My son, Noah, is currently a junior at Georgia Tech. He is a computer science major and has worked locally for The Karcher Group and also out of town for State Farm and Georgia Tech Research Institute. This summer he will be in Seattle working for Microsoft. By the end of this year, he will have broad experience in multiple different environments. Will he have experienced anything locally that will attract him to this area? Will he be wooed by other more attractive business environments?

There have been several companies in the area who have turned to us for help after repeatedly losing out on top college graduates. Bridgestone’s story is typical of many companies:

“The college graduate was brought into town to interview with our company. They were picked up at the airport and brought to our office. The graduate took one look at the building and asked to be taken back to the airport.”

The building told a story about the business which didn't speak towards the future and growth. If the graduate had gone inside they would have seen the same issues. The building was old school, crowded, dark and stuck in the past. Not something that was at all appealing to a young engineer.

Fast forward to after Bridgestone had moved into their new building… I met two young engineers who had recently been hired and were working at the Technical Center in Akron. They stated that one of the reasons they chose to move from Virginia to Akron to work was the quality of the work environment, specifically the building. It was bright, open, light filled, high tech and forward thinking.

What does your building say about you? Does it give you the opportunity to have the best and brightest work for you? What does it say to your customers about your business? Is one of your competitors better positioned to make a good impression in the market?

SōL Harris/Day specializes in helping your business succeed by crafting buildings around the message that you want to tell. Visitors to our own office feel the difference a great environment can make for their employees and clients… it was designed and built with our future success in mind. Feel free to stop by for a tour, to see the difference first hand. Our door is always open to visitors.

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